Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry believes that “theft” was the motive for the latest brutal attack on Syrian nationals in the capital.

Two Syrian asylum seekers were assaulted by a group of over 20 men armed with knives and chains in Sofia late on Sunday, with local media reporting that a third foreign national escaped the attack.

The victims were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The assailants reportedly stole some BGN 1000 (EUR 500) from the asylum-seekers.

“Criminologists from the Sofia Directorate of the Interior Ministry are working towards identifying the perpetrators of a theft,” an Interior Ministry said in a press release on Monday.

Bulgaria has seen a massive increase in xenophobic attacks over the past few weeks, with recent incidents including the stabbings of an 18-year-old Malian boy and a 17-year-old Syrian national in Sofia.

Last week, Chief Prosecutors requested increased police presence in downtown Sofia in order to prevent the so-called "civil patrols” organized by ultranationalist extremist groups.

The leaders of the "patrols" have claimed they seek to "protect" Sofianites from foreigners.

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